The announcement by the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) that it is engaged in the development of a Vision 2030 for mining is a positive step in the right direction after years of short-term pussyfooting by a department that had fallen behind the departments of mines of competitive mining jurisdictions in Australia and Canada.

Under new Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe, South Africa is seeing not only rapid attention being given to the repairing of relationship breakdowns in the short term, but, through the DMR’s announcement, also the devotion of attention to the longer term – and none too soon.

Mining is a long-term business that, if correctly strategised, can quickly spawn enormous spin-off activity in industry, commerce and small business.

It is also positive that the DMR is getting in on the act of applauding and commenting on general announcements made that reflect mining’s role in South Africa’s broader economic picture.

An example of this was its welcoming of the year-on-year increase in mineral production in February, on the back of higher commodity prices.

Data released by StatsSA last week indicated that mineral production increased 3.1% year-on-year, with diamonds, iron-ore, manganese ore and coal being the main contributors.

But the DMR’s description of the increase being indicative of “a resurgence in the sector” should be taken with caution, because it is not a question of resurgence across the board.

One locally mined, crucially important metal heading in the exact opposite direction is platinum, a crucial part of mining, but one under great strain currently when it comes to deep-level operations.

Lower-cost and mechanised platinum mining operations are not feeling the same strain as their deep counterparts and the reality is that the deep mines are the labour-intensive ones.

South Africa needs to face the grim reality of platinum’s fate openly and collectively. With the dollar price at $920/oz and the rand at a level of R12 to the dollar and below, even the best manager in the world will not succeed in pulling profits out of such financial strain.

Government, business, labour and the communities should be searching for a solution. The most obvious one is to cut production while the price is down and have workers return to classrooms to learn more about their craft.

The chrome mining industry did that very successfully with fewer numbers a few years back and heads should be put together to see how that can be achieved with far higher numbers in platinum.

It now seems a long time ago that the CEO of a leading South African platinum mining company announced $1 800/oz as the platinum price the industry needed to have an incentive to grow.

At $920/oz, the only incentive that the price provides is to close mines, as was pointed out last week by SFA Oxford chairperson and director Stephen Forrest, who projects that demand for platinum could be 600 000 oz/y less by 2040 in Western Europe, owing to a decrease in autocatalyst demand from automotive manufacturers, because they are moving towards manufacturing electric vehicles.

Needed are strong new marketing efforts in jewellery in China in the short term and fuel cells in China, Japan, Germany and the US in the medium term.